[CRITIQUE DVD] NORTHWEST

Northwest is a film by the Danish director Michael Noer. At first sight, Northwest is a violent film but, beyond appearances, releases, however, a great humanity.

Film, shock, film punch, NORTHWEST takes guts. The spectator assists a little helpless in the descent into hell of a young commuter, Danish, thief to the short week, will go to the dark side, becoming the second’s hand of a bandit of high-vol, However, if the film is not limited to this, things would be limited easily. It is not the case. It is this part of humanity that arises and expresses itself in the family relationships that maintains Casper, the hero “the fallen” main, with his family, namely his younger brother Oscar, his little sister and his mother all living under the same roof in one of the hot districts of the suburbs of Copenhagen.

More than the course isolated a hell of a solitary hero, Michael Noer be against two brothers, Casper and Oscar, are close in age and physically very similar. While the hero is embedded – a little in spite of himself – in a sphere of total decline (crime, prostitution, drugs…), he will soon have to make a call to his younger brother for support. NORTHWEST becomes a film about the confrontation of two brothers who compete among themselves in the violence, the less informed and the younger of the two, outpacing its predecessor by a mental and physical strength much higher, which is all the more destabilizing as the latter had not asked for anything to anyone.

NORTHWEST paints a picture critical of the youth of the neighborhoods of the suburbs of Copenhagen, where, from one day to the next, the fate of a young person can switch without it being necessarily the sponsor. Very sensitive to this youth bewildered and familiar of these suburbs, the director is master of his subject, and, entering very close to the intimacy of the violent atmosphere, offers a realistic picture.

“Film, shock, film punch, NORTHWEST takes guts.”

Casper, even if he is flying illegally parts choice quickly redeemed, is not a “villain”. We do not feel grumpy or hateful, or even violent. On the contrary, this boy has the sweetness in him which he cannot be divested not despite its fall to crime. This characteristic is revealed in particular by the relationship he has with his little sister for who he is now, or still in a relationship with his best friend that he did not hesitate to heckle in the face of behavior that it considers unorthodox. At the beginning of the film, Casper seems to be right, and at the end also. Despite the violence that surrounds him, and which he must exercise in this spiral where it has failed, this anti-hero never seems to get rid of a certain honesty to his loved ones, a sense of family duty. Thus, despite its violence, the NORTHWEST remains a film human and moving, the end to the “open” leaving, however, the viewer a little perplexed.

The dvd will be released by Bac Films (in-store and their page Facebook). The dvd has bonus including deleted scenes with commentary. The director explains the choices he faced and the relevance of certain scenes that did not put enough in before the main character. The electro music provides an electric atmosphere to the film and adds to the permanent tension that weighs on the shoulders of the lead actor.

Find this article on all the films, 2014 Cinetrafic, in particular on the page of the movie NORTHWEST.

• Original title : Northwest

• Achievement : Michael Noer

• Screenplay : Michael Noer, Rasmus Heisterberg

• Main actors : Gustav Dyekjaer Giese, Oscar Dyekjaer Giese, Roland Møller, Lene Maria Christensen, Nicholas Westwood Kidd, Dulfi Al-Jabouri…

• Country of origin : Denmark

• Released : march 18, 2014 (dvd)

• Duration : 1h31mn

• Distributor : Bac Films

• Synopsis : Nordvest is one of the city’s multi-ethnic poor of Copenhagen. Casper, a young 18 year old man, lives there with his mother, his little brother and his little sister. He strives to make ends meet selling stolen goods to one of the leaders of the gangs in the neighborhood. When organized crime comes to Nordvest, the hierarchy within the district exchange and Casper sees it as a chance to rise in rank. Soon, he is catapulted into a world of drugs, violence and prostitution, resulting in his brother in its wake. Then things get worse, the playground of their childhood becomes a field of battle.